You see, it happened this way: Mother had forty-five dollars on hand that belonged to the church fair fund.

So, night before last, she asked me to take it over to Miss Bond, the treasurer.

I was going through Clinton Street, in one of the dark spots, when a man jumped out from behind a tree and made a snatch for the purse that I carried in my hand.
"Well, somehow---I don't just know how," Laura continued, "I managed to keep hold of the purse and I screamed, of course.

Then some one came running down the street as fast as he could---and Dick Prescott leaped at the rascal.

It was a hard fight---a fearful one." The girl shuddered even then, in the telling, but she continued: "The wretch was twice as big as Dick Prescott.